Price we pay for survival
by StillMaria
Summary: AU where Abby is a grounder. She was never on the Ark so the bracelets were never invented and the 100 was never sent. Instead, Marcus Kane comes to Earth with other volunteers.
1. Chapter 1

"We got one!" someone shouts from the gates as a squad walks into Arkadia, and Marcus Kane shoots a look at them before nodding to the few people sitting at a table: they can continue without him.

"I gave a clear order not to engage", Marcus hisses as he approaches the squad. "You were only supposed to pick up our dead, mayor". He looks at a bloody figure that hangs on the soldier's arms: it's hard to tell who they have, but this is the first time they've actually got a grounder alive. Kane comes a step closer. It could be a trap. Or it could be luck. He doesn't believe in luck though.

"We didn't, sir". Mayor Bern lowers her head and nods towards the grounder: whoever he or she is, it doesn't look like that creature is conscious. The grounder hangs with a head bowed and messy hair stained in blood covering face and neck. "She was hiding next to the spot".

"This looks fresh". Marcus comes near and presses a finger to the grounder's ribcage. Dark blood runs across his finger, and he raises his eyes, waiting to hear an explanation. None comes. "Did it… did she resist?" for a moment he's not sure how to call the creature. Mayor shakes her head negatively. Still, no explanation comes. "Take her to medical," he says, turning away and quickly walking back to the table. They still have a lot of things to discuss before he can call the Council meeting adjourned.

...

It's been two weeks since they landed on Earth. Fourteen times Kane saw a sunset and thirteen times he saw a sunrise. He didn't look at it, he knows he's seen it though. He's also seen his people killed off, dozen by dozen. They call those creatures 'grounders', not completely sure what they really are. Some of them seem to look like humans, some don't, but so far none of them could be talked to. Those who tried putting down the weapon and suggesting to stop fighting were killed the very moment the gun touched the ground.

"How soon can we question her?" Marcus asks, watching over a figure strapped to a gurney. This one looks human. Uncertain, he touches her forehead, moves his hand to her neck, shoulder, down the ribcage, presses the belly and a hip. He wonders if others are the same, hidden behind ugly masks made of mutated animal's sculls and teeth.

"The injuries are pretty bad," he hears behind his back and turns to face the doctor. "I've stitched her up and sedated. Whoever did this, meant to finish her," he finishes, showing a panel to Kane. Kane nods. The doctor rubs his own bruised cheek: they had a rough landing. It's hard to find a single person in the camp who's not been injured.

"Thank you, Jackson," Kane glances at the grounder one last time. Jackson's right: even if she attacked his soldiers, they'd not cut her like this. These cuts are small and they are too many. For a few seconds he wonders what's happened, then he goes back to work.

...

They need more food. They need water. Every second time they go to get either of those they're attacked by huge animals that one could confuse for people. They still need food and water.

Marcus wonders if maybe there was another way. He knows there wasn't: after the riot the only thing that could calm people down was a one way ticket to Earth, survivable or not. They'd kill each other otherwise. Damn you, Jake, he thinks again and again every time he remembers the Ark; damn you. It got ugly, much uglier than anyone could expect: hearing they only had a few more months of air made people go insane. It made them bloodthirsty. If only Jake had talked to someone – anyone – before going public, they'd not lose so many lives in the riot. They'd find a way to be civilized, Kane thinks, and then he admits that they'd also have no idea the Earth was survivable.

They'd not be forced to go down now, and by the time their great-great-grand children would finally land (if humanity survived that long, of course), the grounder civilization would've developed and they'd stand no chance against it. Even now their chances are rather slim.

Late at night Kane looks at the sky as if trying to see the Ark. He knows there's been another riot after the exodus ship survived the landing. He knows there is a new chancellor, again, for the second time in just a month. He knows that this one won't stand too long either – he'll probably face the fate of Jaha and his other predecessor (whose name Marcus doesn't even remember). At least now, with seven hundred people gone to the ground, the arkers have enough time to fix the air. That is, if they don't kill each other in the process.

If things continue like this here on Earth, those people up in the sky might be the only ones left alive after all. Kane hopes it won't come to that. He hopes there is a way to make peace with the grounders.

...

"Have you regretted volunteering, Jackson?" Kane asks, entering the medical. The young man turns to face him and shakes his head.

"You needed a doctor on the ground," he responds after a second. Kane nods. They did. But he was still surprised to see how many of the essential personnel volunteered – engineers, scientists, soldiers... If the Earth turned out not to be survivable, they'd all be killed by radiation, essential or not.

Kane walks to the gurney and looks at the grounder prisoner. She's awake but obviously tries to hide it: with her eyes closed, her pupils are moving as if she's trying to see through her eyelids. Kane knows she hears him, he knows she's listening.

"Do you understand our language?" he asks, standing above her head and attentively looking at her face: he wants to spot any change.

"She's still high on painkillers," Jackson steps in, injecting the woman with grey liquid.

Perhaps wasting their meds on a grounder isn't such a great idea, Marcus thinks to himself.

"How soon can she be questioned?" he asks, and Jackson hides his hands into the pockets, stepping from one foot to another uncomfortably.

"Uh… She can probably answer questions… I mean, if they speak our language, she can. But she's – she's lost too much blood for… for questioning… I wouldn't advice…" Kane shoots him a look, and Jackson stops talking. Marcus can't say he's surprised by the doctor's reaction. If they are going to survive here on Earth, Jackson's got a lot to learn about the price they'll pay for staying alive. He turns to the gurney again, sighs and puts his hand on the woman's bandaged shoulder:

"Do you hear me?" he asks, slowly pressing into the wound – not enough to make it bleed, but apparently enough for the grounder to react. She hisses and bites her lower lip, trembles a little, then slowly opens her eyes, looking straight ahead as if Marcus isn't there. "Do you understand me?" he presses harder, and she winces, turning her head to the side to look at Jackson. Jackson freezes. Marcus repeats the question.

"Please," Jackson steps closer, covering Kane's hand with his own, "She might not even understand what's happening just yet".

"Please," they hear a quiet female voice repeat and they freeze. Kane takes away his hand, and the woman jerks, visibly in pain.

"What is your name?" he asks, pushing Jackson to the side with his own body. The woman blinks a few times but remains silent. "Do you know where you are?" She blinks again. "Do you understand me?" Nothing changes. Kane bites his cheek, irritated.

"Ab… Ab…" the woman repeats several times, breathing heavy. She looks around as if trying to find something. Kane glances at the belt that keeps her neck attached to the gurney: this grounder wouldn't be able to move even if she was not sedated. He bends closer to her face, attempting to hear her whispers. "Abigail," she breathes out and moves uncomfortable on the gurney.


	2. Chapter 2

"Abigail," she repeats after a few seconds, her wet eyes locked on Marcus' face. And then she rolls them and coughs; her body starts shaking wildly. Jackson rushes to her side, checking the pulse. He unfastens the belts on her neck, shoulders and one arm and silently – but very quickly – nods to Kane for assistance: they flip the woman's body to a side enough for Jackson to inspect her back. Her legs remain bound. Her movements become stronger.

The gurney appears to be covered in blood.

"Damn it!" Jackson yells, pressing his palm to the small of her back and then calls for the nurse. "This wasn't bleeding before," he comments to answer an unspoken of his Chancellor. Marcus nods: he'd imagine it must be hard to tend to all the cuts when there are at least fifty of them, most still covered with dried blood and dirt.

He watches Jackson and the nurse cut off the remaining cloths of the prisoner. The grounder cries out when a nurse presses a cloth with alcohol to the bleeding wound.

"We need more stitches," the nurse says under her breath as she presses the trembling figure of the grounder woman down to the gurney. Abigail still tries to fight: with her left arm free, she waves it chaotically, almost hitting the syringe Jackson uses to inject her.

"How much can we actually use?" doctor asks once the prisoner passively falls onto a gurney. Her struggling has opened up three more wounds on the back.

"We need her alive," Marcus answers with signs of irritation. It vanishes the moment they start removing dirt and blood from the prisoner's body: there can't be less than a hundred cuts on her flesh, all different shapes and depth. As the nurse washes them with a mix of alcohol and water, Kane grimaces: saving this grounder takes way too much recourse. It better be worth it.

"Every day we wait, our people get killed by the grounders, sir" Major Bern walks into Kane's office and he immediately knows what she wants to hear. He puts away the map and gets up. Major comes closer, her voice gives up her nervousness. "We can't just wait till she recovers; it might take forever given her injuries."

"So you would rather kill her right away?" he smiles bitterly. It's been two days since the grounder prisoner first woke up, but she's been too weak to be talked to. They tried, of course, but that didn't get them anywhere. Every time Jackson thought she was stable, the prisoner proved him wrong and went into a cardiac arrest.

"No, sir," she responds dryly, folding her hands on the chest, "but we are running low on water, so we'll have to go out again soon…" He knows. He wishes they'd find a way to communicate with the woman they have in the medical. But they are forced to keep her sedated most of the time: when she wakes up and the painkillers wear off, she becomes way too agitated. "Have you heard from the Ark, sir?" Bern suddenly changes the topic, and it takes Marcus a moment to realize what she's asking about. He might be a Chancellor here on the ground, but the real one is still up there, and as loyal as Bern is to her superior officer, she still needs to know the chain of command.

"They've split their resources last time we talked. It seems like they might be able to arrange one more drop ship even before fixing the air." He hopes they do, but then he wonders how they are going to choose who gets to go. The last time it was simple: nobody knew if the Earth was survivable, so it came down to whoever felt like going. This time things are different.

Marcus watches the woman on a gurney as the doctor and a nurse wake her up: this is the fifth time they do it since they got her. He does hope it'll finally work: at least, this time Jackson sounds much more optimistic (he made a mixture of low effect sedative and painkillers that should keep her awake and lucid, yet, not let her suffer too much). Her naked body is all covered with stitches and bandages, and then a pale blanket lies on top of that.

Abigail slowly moves her head and opens her eyes. She seems disoriented.

"Please, don't!" she cries out when she spots Jackson approaching with a syringe. He gives Kane a wondering look. Kane nods and the syringe is put aside.

"Why?" Kane asks, not sure what it is he wants to know. Is she just afraid of it or does she actually know what injections do to her and she doesn't like it? "So you speak our language, don't you?" he continues when she doesn't respond. Her eyes are moving from Kane to Jackson, then onto the nurse and then back onto Kane. He takes a deep breath and walks closer.

"You didn't kill me…" she speaks, her voice breaking and barely audible. "How?.."

Kane raises his eyebrows. The woman's breath is heavy and she bites her lips every few seconds even though she's not supposed to be in any pain at the moment.

"You will stay alive if you answer my questions." He says it slowly, word after word, not fully sure whether she understands him. She blinks. Marcus glances at Jackson, but the doctor offers no comment.

"You didn't go through all the trouble of fighting for my life just to kill me…" the grounder whispers, barely moving her bruised lips, and Kane smirks. She hears him and – perhaps – understands more than he'd want her to.

"So you do speak our language," Marcus stretches his lips into what someone might mistake for a smile. It's not. He's not amused. He's tense and he almost feels like he's been played, even though it's clear there could be no play there. "Who are you?"

"Why did you save me?" she answers with a question and tries to move her arm. It's strapped to a gurney, so there isn't much she can do. Abigail jerks her arm again: the belt digs into the bandage covering the wrist.

"Stop that," Kane motions towards her moving arm, "or he'll have to sedate you again. You seem to not want that, correct?" She freezes, drilling him with her eyes.

"Won't your people kill you?" she murmurs, shifting her body under the blanket – she can't move too much, just an inch or two, the belts aren't too tight but they are there, guarding her shoulders and legs to prevent her from hurting herself.

"For what?"

"Saving the enemy," she licks her lips and grimaces in disgust.

"Would yours?" She moves her head a little only to realize there is a belt on her neck. Marcus can guess she's tried to nod. "Is that what's happened to you?" It's a hunch, he admits, but the more he tries to understand why or how she could've gotten all these cuts, the more he thinks it must've been a punishment of some sort. That, and the fact that they are still missing three dead bodied; presumably dead, he corrects himself. They don't really know if those people were really killed.

"Water… Please…" Abigail gives as a response.

"Answer my question… Please," he retorts with yet another smirk. "Did you capture our soldiers alive? Answer me!" he shouts and clenches his hands into fists.

"Just one, but he was beyond saving. I…" she notices Jackson coming from behind Marcus, "I did what I could, I…" her eyes roll once again. Jackson grabs a flashlight and checks her eyes. Pupils are dilated and what seems to be a little trembling quickly turns into a seizure.

It takes them two more strokes to understand that the prisoner is allergic to their painkillers.


	3. Chapter 3

It is a few hours after the squad returns, carrying two injured men, when Marcus finds himself staring at his lead doctor and not being able to understand what's wrong. Jackson is obviously out of breath and seems to be agitated and frightened, and when he rushes into the Chancellor's office, Marcus assumes the worst: one or both of his people who's been brought in injured are now dead.

They're not though. That is the first thing he asks and that is the first thing to be answered.

"She's going to kill her!" Jackson shouts. Kane gives him a concerned look, not yet sure what it might be about. "The grounder prisoner…" doctor adds and that is when Kane rushes into the corridor. However the woman managed the escape from her restraints, he still wants her alive. He just hopes he'll get there before she kills someone. He doesn't ask who it is Jackson believes Abigail might go after. From what Marcus has already learnt she's a doctor herself, so he hopes he's right about her. She's a grounder though, and grounders haven't done anything but kill his people so far.

Walking as fast as humanly possible, Marcus pulls out a gun. Jackson almost runs behind him.

It's the screams that catch Marcus by surprise as he approaches the Medical. Female cries full of agony reach his ears twice before he gets to the door. As he enters the room, Kane's eyes widen in shock and he stops for a moment, taking in what he's seeing. It's absolutely not what he's expected.

Major Byrne stands above the gurney, her baton out and sparkling with electricity. The prisoner is still bound, now with a blanket tossed aside and her bare body only covered with bandages. She's crying, and sobbing, and screaming, pulling against restraints as the major moves her baton along the wounded torso, a quiet humming sound of electricity fills the silence between screams.

"Major!" Marcus yells, only then realizing he doesn't just sound angry. He sounds worried. The major puts away the baton and takes a step back. Before Kane knows it he finds himself walking to the gurney much faster than he should, his eyes locked on the Major. If he could kill with just a look, Byrne probably would be dead now. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hisses, putting his hand onto the prisoner's forehead as if trying to soothe her. She's still quivering, pressing the belts on her neck and wrists deep into the skin. Kane takes a deep breath. Their prisoner might've not given them anything useful just yet, but she has made it pretty clear she was opposed to violence, and he was hoping to gain her trust rather than fear.

Afraid she might suffocate herself, Marcus unties the belt on her neck.

Abigail moans quietly and takes a deep breath. For a moment Marcus thinks he sees her trying to say something because she opens her mouth and moves her lips. No sound comes out though. He shoots a look at the major with a metal "I'll deal with you later."

Marcus fixes the blanket back onto the grounder's body and then checks up on the two injured guards lying on gurneys.

"I was under the impression their injuries weren't this bad," he comments, noticing how pale the patients are. Their faces are sweaty and he can see dark veins through the skin.

A barely audible noise distracts him and forces to turn around.

"I…" Abigail whispers and pulls her hands against restraints as hard as she can. It's clear she has trouble making her tongue obey, and as Marcus walks closer, she's still repeating the only sound she's managed so far: "I…"

He glances at Byrne as if wanting to hear her take on what the prisoner might have to say. Everybody keeps quiet for a few seconds, and then Marcus orders the major out of the medical and off duty till tomorrow. He doesn't want to go any further, but she's disobeyed his direct order and there's no telling what else she might do.

Byrne doesn't move.

"I can help," Abigail says surprisingly loud, though barely understandable through coughing and sobbing. For a moment everyone in the room freezes to look at her. Kane nods, inviting her to continue. "I can help you save them," she repeats, squeezing her eyes shut and biting her lip till it starts to bleed.

"How do I know you're not gonna kill my people, Abigail?" Kane hides his hands in the pockets. He's pretty certain she doesn't mean any harm, but then with the major looking at him, unmasked hate on her face, he needs their prisoner to say it.

"Abby," she breathes out, moving her head from side to side and visibly enjoying the freedom her neck now has. "They will die. It's poison."

* * *

Freeing a prisoner like this is not a risk he wouldn't take to save his people, and seeing how Abby can barely lift herself up from the gurney he doubts there is any risk at all. But should something happen, major Byrne has a permission to shoot. Kane hopes it won't come to that. Abby can't stand on her own, so he holds her still. She winces just once as he extends his arm to wrap it around her ribcage for better support. Then she stops noticing him at all: she's too concentrated on the two men lying on the gurneys. Her hands, shaky and uncertain at first, are suddenly precise and sharp. She wondrously looks at the scalpel for a few seconds, apparently not being used to this particular tool, but finds her way with it rather fast. She cuts the flesh and draws blood. The robe they've hurriedly put on her before walking her to the gurneys quickly gets covered with red stains.

"This will slow it down, but we don't have much time," having made several cuts around the arrow wounds, she finally says, her voice shaky and her feet almost crumbling. If it wasn't for Markus, she'd fall. "I can make the antidote if your people…"

"Which one?" Jackson quickly runs to the table and picks up a handful of small bottles. Markus knows these: they found them on every grounder they'd killed. But until now they could only guess what they were for. The liquids inside are all different colors, and Abby slowly smells each of them, one after another, before nodding to herself and pointing at a muddy vial.

"Make her drink it first, sir," they hear Byrne's voice as she approaches the other gurney. The grounder waves her head negatively.

"If they don't drink it, they'll die, and there won't be enough for both of them if I take any…"

"It's your call, Chancellor," Jackson pleads, squeezing the bottle as tight as he can.

Marcus can make her drink half of it and save one life; or save both lives; or kill both of his people if this Abby's motives are not as pure as he hopes. He doesn't see what she's got to gain should these two men die, but years of service kick in, and Kane cannot allow himself blind trust. He feels the grounder shift in his arms and she visibly starts to feel weaker. He tightens his grip and she moans quietly.

"I'm sorry," Markus breathes into her ear and extends his hand. Jackson gives him the bottle. "I have to be sure. You said you could make more if needed. Now drink."

"I will need herbs from outside," Abby protests. "Your people will have to find them."

Kane knows what she says. Someone can get hurt again. The way she insists on not drinking the potion makes him even firmer though.

"Drink!" he growls and, still having his arm wrapped around her body, presses his fingers into Abby's flesh where he knows she's been tased. She grits her teeth but makes no sound.

Abby turns her head to face him, half in disbelief, half irritated. Her feverish breath burns Kane's cheek. The vial trembles as her fingers flip it open.

"You don't have to do this," she states and waits a few seconds to see if he changes his mind. He doesn't. She sighs and sips.


End file.
